The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-04-27
The Russian TOlst0i's Fable Of Non
resistance.

In the Independent there is trans
lation of long fable of Count Leo
Tolstoi's, entitled "Ivan, the Fool"
The moral of the fable is to show the
excellence of peace and non-resistance,
and contented agricultural life, as
Opposed to all the suppositious honor
and glory of the military career, and
the greed for gold and luxurious pos
sessions which so frequently beset
those who betake themselves to COM
mercial pursuits.
Briefly told a well-to-do peasant has
three sons and daughter, to wit, Sem
yon the warrior, Taras the merchant,
Ivan the fool (the daughter) and Me-
lanya, the long-eared, who is dumb.
Semyon and Taras ask their father to
have their portions set off to them, to
which he agrees if Ivan does not OBJ
ject. Ivan is very willing, and busily
attends to his blowing, planting and
other farm work, his dumb sister keep
ing house for him. Semyon goes off
to the wars, and Taras to his merchan-
dizing.
Meanwhile, Satan calls to himself
three imps, whom he instructs to over
come the brothers and stir up discord.
SemyOn and Taras manage to run
through with their money, but when
the iinps essay to anger Ivan, he
catches one of them on his plowshare,
and another be impales on his scythe-
point, and only gives them their free
dom when the first tells him how he
may make soldiers out of the sheaves
Of wheat, and the other how he may
coin money out of the oak leaves.
Semyon and Taras, without means,
coming to the home of Ivan the Fool,
are ciYilly treated and invited to stay
as long as they please; but learning
that Ivan can raise soldiers out of his
sheaves and gold out of the oak leaves,
they soon become clamorous for the
favors.
Ivan is very generous, and gives
them what they want. So Semyon
goes off to the wars again, wakes
mighty and becomes a Tsar, and Taras
also, going into commerce, becomes
another Tsar. Likewise the same ele-
vation happens to Ivan, through a
piece of good fortune in healing the
daughter of the king, and in getting
her for his wife. Satan is again dis
turbed, and believes he will now un-
dertake to,overthrow the brothers him
self, and not trust the ttsiiss Sc h;3 imps.
Semyon he sets to craving the posses
sions of q neighboring prince; a war
ensues, and Semyon is ruined. Taras
is next taken in hand, and through
speculation and wrong methods of
trade, he also is discomfited. Next
comes the turn of Ivan the FOOLISH
tan giving out to Ivan and his people
that to work with ones brains Is an in
finitely easier way to live than to toll
with the hands, and becoming over-fa-
tigued, round-shouldered and callous-
handed. Ivan, however, though styl-
ed "fool," gives evidence of being
singularly level-headed, so Satan's
cunning lessons return upon his own
pate, he retires in chagrin, and Ivan
and his people live on contented and
happy. One episode of Ivan's reign
(omitted in place. is an irruption of
soldiers from the dominion of his
neighbor. When they first make their
entry into the land, Ivan's people 60
on with their regular pursuits as
though the soldiers coming did not at
all concern them. Disconnected at
this, the soldiers 60 back to their
prince, and tell him they had failed to
find any army to fight. The prince
thereupon tells them to 60 ahead, burn
and kill, and they would find their
hands full. Following his instruc-
tions, to burn and kill. Two or three
villages and their occupants are treat
ed in this manner; then they 60 back
to the prince, give up their weapons,
and let him know they were not made
for such mean business as slaughter
ing and setting fire to the houses of a
people who had never done them any
harm.
The Independent, editorially re-
marking on the fable, says: "Notwith-
standing all his powers, and though
making out good case for the work of
the hand against the work of the head,
| in Ivan, the FOOL Tolstoi fails, nev-
ertheless, to convince his readers that
his doctrine is not, after all, only a
FOOLS scheme"
But Count Tolstoi has shown, by his
relinguishing his military post and
honors, and by retiring to the country
and entering into the humble pursuits
of the peasant farmers ON his estates,
that he Jocks upon peace and non-re-
sistance as entirely practical princi-
ples-hardly to he called in Christian
paper "a FOOLS scheme"-except, may
hap. in the sense of consenting to be
"a fool for Christ's sake" Not all the
wise of the earth can receive this doc
trine. The fable of Tolstoi will doubt
less be read by thousands, perhaps by
millions of the Russian people, and
the Gar will scarcely be able to charge
upon the eminent writer the crime of
having scattered broadcast Nihilist
| firebrand. JOSIAH w. LEEDS.
An Imnortant Society Forgotten.